The Solitary Rambler

There is something about Reeth in Swaledale that makes me feel completely comfortable and relaxed. It may be down to the beauty of the village, its setting, its amenities, or perhaps just the friendliness of the local people. I always feel the same way whenever I visit this part of the Yorkshire Dales, so today I enjoy a walk around the wonderful village and part of the two lovely dales between which it is positioned. During my day I recall an amusing and rather humiliating time I had in Reeth some years previously, which my friends never allow me to forget.....

I fell in love with the Yorkshire Dales village of Reeth when I spent a very enjoyable weekend there with a couple of friends way back in 2007. We all had such a great time there we returned to Reeth for another equally brilliant weekend the following year. Reeth had everything we wanted, i.e. a good number of pubs and eateries, great walks, and the most wonderful village with all its beauty. Taking all this into consideration I knew that making a film of “The Solitary Rambler” in Reeth was an absolute must.

On both those occasions I stayed in Reeth with my friends we did a short circular walk to nearby Grinton. This involved a very pleasant walk across a small suspension bridge over the River Swale, and we normally did this walk late afternoon sometime after we had just checked into our accommodation in Reeth. I wanted to feature this walk in my film, which I would shoot whilst staying for three nights in the Buck Hotel in March 2017. On the first day I had filmed “Rapids of Redmire” on my way up to Reeth, so I would spend my second day shooting this video, which I would call “Relaxed in Reeth”. In one of my books of walks in the Yorkshire Dales I found one which featured a circular walk starting in Reeth and walking through part of Arkengarthdale as well as the aforementioned walk over the suspension bridge to Grinton, so this was what I decided to film.

On Tuesday 28th March I woke up to a misty morning in Reeth, but this was as it was forecast so I couldn’t complain. It was meant to be dry all day, however, so I began shooting my scenes in Reeth itself. Despite the mist I think I captured some great shots of the village and I thought it might give a different atmosphere to my film. After shooting in Reeth I started the walk which led me north of the village across fields up Arkengarthdale. Crossing Arkle Beck I followed the dale along the opposite side of the beck and head south back in the direction of Reeth.

Eventually joining the road into the village I walked on towards the nearby village of Grinton. I continued filming as I walked and noticed many smartly dressed people following the path between the two villages. Arriving at Grinton there were a large number of cars parking in a nearby field with more smartly dressed people. I realised there must be a funeral on somewhere in Grinton. I carried on with my filming as I walked around the village, but because of the funeral I decided it would not really be appropriate to film around the churchyard. I managed to take a couple of shots of the church from a distance, but I moved on quickly so that my filming would not encroach onto the people walking into the churchyard for the funeral.

I followed the path from Grinton, which ran parallel with the River Swale. After a while I came to the suspension bridge known as Reeth Swing Bridge. Filming many shots here I then walked back into Reeth to film the last few shots including one inside my room in the Buck Hotel to show the view from the window across Reeth and the surrounding countryside. By now the sun was replacing some of the mist so more of the hills in the background could be seen.

I came up with a bass theme as a variation of my Yorkshire Dales song “Insecure About You”, so that’s what I decided to record for “Relaxed in Reeth”. During the recording of this version of the theme I wanted to add a drum beat for some of the sequences, so for a change I used a “retro pop” sound from my keyboard. I thought was perhaps a rather unusual type of rhythm to accompany countryside scenes, but then I thought it was also quite a catchy beat and I do like to try and vary my soundtracks for each film as much as I can.